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Hurst's brother just announced his intention to transfer from Starkville.

(er, technically it's "Mississippi State, MS" like "Notre Dame, IN" but "Mississippi State, MS" sounds idiotic).

Or was he perceived as one because he lived in Indiana?

From what I read, he always seemed like a southerner who was itching to go back.

As far as your question, I'm always a little lukewarm on package deals. I wouldn't be in a rush to land OTs. I'd just let things play out. There seem to be a number of quality OTs in this year's class. Kohler, Linder, Stone, Henderson, Benedict, and James. Losing Hurst (have any other targets dropped?) is not the end of the world. With Lombard already on board, we only need two more from that group of six. Those are pretty good odds if we can get them to make an official visit.

Also, more offers could go out during/after the May evaluation period.

ND has been out of the race for a week, but I'm surprised he picked Carolina over some SEC power like Florida or Georgia.

Obviously, we need an elite LT in this class, and Hurst was one of our best bets. How far should we be willing to go to land someone like Sentreal Henderson or, to a lesser extent, Matt James from Ohio?

Here's what I'm getting at. There has been talk that Weis wants two QBs in this class. Montana appears to be the top choice for one spot. If he commits, that will likely scare away any other upper-echelon QB, so the second one would be a project type.

Henderson and James both happen to have QB teammates/friends who are project types. Luke Massa, James' teammate, visited for the spring game and is likely to return this summer to try to earn an offer. He currently holds an offer from Wisconsin. A commitment from him would likely enhance our chances at James.

J.D. Pride from Minnesota is rumored to be so tight with Henderson that Henderson is seriously considering the Gophers largely because they offered Pride a scholarship. I have no idea how good Pride is, but as a "dual-threat" QB, he might not be a good fit for ND's offense.

If you told me that offering Pride would guarantee Henderson signing with us and not offering him would rule us out, I'd say offer him, even if he never plays a down. I think Henderson is that important. Of course, it's never that simple, which is why our coaches make so much money.